In the Shanghai Graffiti Park (No. 709 Lingshi Road, inside the Electric Industrial Park), Belgian-born Shanghai-based artist Phil Akashi has created a mural of Nelson Mandela using a boxing glove to which he attached a seal engraved with the Chinese characters for “freedom.”

MUST-SEE NEW PUBLIC ART ACROSS THE GLOBEby BLOUIN ARTINFO on October 14, 2013

SHANGHAI TRIBUTE TO MANDELA BY PHIL AKASHI

After dipping the glove in black cinnabar paste, Akashi punched the wall 27,000 times to print a monumental portrait, called “Tribute to Mandela.” Inspired by Mandela’s lifelong stand for freedom and equality, Akashi’s seal painting can be considered a way to promote democracy through art in politically restrictive China.—Yiquan Wang